The giant panda, formerly also known as the bamboo bear, is one of the most endangered animal species in the world. Still in the wild in 1864, pandas are spread across six mountainous regions in southwest China.

The question of whether the giant panda belongs to the family of small or large bears or whether it should be classified in its own family has occupied scientists for a long time. In the meantime, however, it is certain that it belongs to the family of big bears.

Panda bears are mammals and belong to the order Carnivora even though they feed almost exclusively on plants. Children who want to see giant pandas can take advantage of the giant panda cam. This way, they can see live pandas even though they don’t see them in actuality.

giant panda cam

What do giant pandas look like?

Typical of the giant panda is its black and white fur pattern. Ears, eyespots, snout, hind legs, front legs, and shoulders are black, the rest are white. A special feature of the giant panda and also of the lesser or red panda is the so-called pseudo-thumb. This extended carpal bone on their front paws helps them hold their food, the bamboo stalks, more easily.

An adult animal is 120 to 180 centimeters tall. At 85 to 125 kilograms, the males weigh around 10 to 20 percent more than the females, at 70 to 100 kilograms. Giant pandas can live up to 20 years in the wild and more than 30 years in captivity. The oldest known giant panda died at the age of 36.

The social organization, activity, and communication of giant pandas

Adult panda bears are solitary creatures but communicate intensively using scent marks in exposed places such as tree stumps or tree trunks. Their territories marked in this way are 1 to 60, on average between 5 and 15 square kilometers in size. They stay about half of the time in a smaller, only about 30-hectare core zone of their territory.

What is known about giant panda reproduction?

A panda bear becomes sexually mature between the ages of five and seven. As with other bear species, a female gives birth to cubs every two to three years. The widespread notion that pandas were not very reproductive was due to improper human husbandry and breeding at the beginning. Although the female panda is only receptive for two to three days once a year between March and May, the reproductive success is no different compared to other large bear species. A panda bear can raise six or more cubs in her lifetime.